The ‘National Unity Government’ under Maithripala Sirisena completed two years in January 2017. In the commemoration speech, President Sirisena noted that he got a mandate from the people “to restore democracy, media freedom, bring about ethnic reconciliation, to draft a new Constitution, lift the economy from the depths of indebtedness, and improve relations with the international community by following a nonaligned foreign policy.”

Fulfilling the above challenges, however, has not been easy. During 2016, the coalition government faced two main issues in the form of national reconciliation and economic development.